The New York Times bestselling author of Angels’ Blood returns to her world of angelic rulers, vampiric servants, and the woman who has been thrust into their darkly seductive world.
Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux wakes from a year-long coma to find that she has become an angel and that her lover, the stunningly dangerous archangel Raphael, likes having her under his control. But almost immediately, Raphael must ready Elena for a flight to Beijing, to attend a ball thrown by the archangel Lijuan. Ancient and without conscience, Lijuan’s power lies with the dead. And she has organized the most perfect and most vicious of welcomes for Elena.
I didn’t really enjoy the story as much as I wanted to. It came off as so broody and adult angsty. I felt like it was too serious. Maybe I am inadvertently comparing it to the Psy-Changling series, which is fun and humorous? This one was just so stinkin’ serious. And it wasn’t romantic enough for me. I got all the romance from Raphael (don’t ask why, but my mental voice for him was Liam Neeson). My romantic meter is picking nothing up from Elena. She let’s us know that she wouldn’t be here if she didn’t have to. I kinda feel like she is forcing herself to like Raphael, but that could just be me. I’m still waiting for the lovey dovey part to happen. I liked how they both were working it out though. Both were giving and giving a little, with Elena having to step far out of her comfort zone.
One thing I am glad about it that every few pages I would forget what color Raphael’s eyes were. Right at that moment Elena would tell me! Cobalt, metallic blue, etc. I don’t know how I kept forgetting but thank goodness Elena thought about it every few pages! That was close! Oh, and can’t forget about his salty sea smell. Even though she’d tell me, three pages later I would forget his smell. What was it? Was it pickles? No… Cake? No… Ice? What was it?!?! ? That is what I would scream to myself on frustration when I couldn’t remember. But, trusty Elena took time out of her sparring to remind me… and for that I am eternally grateful. You’d think I would have written it down after the 10th time, but nope!
The same rant above goes for Illium and his wings! But to be honest, I really like Illium so I didn’t mind the constant reminders. Aww, who am I kidding? I like Raphael, too! Remind me all you want girl!
As for the story, I liked it. We get more of the angel world, the Refuge. The Refuge was hard for me to picture, but I still enjoyed the descriptions. There are cliffs and drop offs and far away places…. my mental map was pretty bad. I loved the little angels that we’re introduced to.
It’s crazy. These angels are supposed to be these awesome beings (seriously, they can fly!) but really they have too much drama for your momma! It was like a supernatural soap-opera. I guess when you’ve lived that long drama is one of the things that keep you going?? I wouldn’t know.
I thought the ending was really anti-climatic. Don’t get me wrong, what happened was good but I kept reading and waiting for THE final battle and next thing I know I’m hit with a cliffhanger! OK, OK, it’s not really a cliffhanger, more of a semi-opening for the next book. But I thought there’d be more, oh well. I’ll find out!
Since I have a special place on my bookshelf for Nalini Singh, I will continue to read all of her books. I don’t fall in love with every one of them but for some reason I can’t stop myself from reading the next books. She’s sneaky good like that!